Tourism experts plead for more funds for TTB

Edward Qorro

The Guardian

TOURISM experts have cautioned that Tanzania will continue to lag behind despite having topnotch attractions if the government fails to invest heavily in the sector like its competitors

Tourists walk at Stone Town in Zanzibar

The warning comes hot in the heels of the country’s lacklustre performance in the World Travel Awards (WTA), announced in Zanzibar recently. The awards saw the country’s tourist board beaten by ...
Kenya Tourism Board in marketing and promoting tourism destinations in their countries.

For the second year in a row, Kenya Tourist Board has beaten TTB in its efforts of promoting tourism.
During the awards, Kenya Tourism Board was feted for being Africa’s leading tourist board, thanks to its strategies in marketing and promoting tourism.
However, speaking to The Guardian yesterday, Chief Executive Officer with Hotels Association of Tanzania (HAT) Lathifa Sykes expressed her concern over the minimal budget being allocated to TTB while the country was home to 16 national parks and a host of other tourist attractions that needed to be marketed.
Sykes suggested that TTB will remain to be the underdog if it continues to be underfunded by the government. She said that during the financial year 2015/16, the Kenyan government had allocated a whopping $53.8million, while TTB was only given $2.6million that same year.
“TTB is given a fraction of their budget, surely it will not meet its goals while it keeps depending on the government,” she said.
Sykes added that TTB was in the same slot with Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Namibia, Nigeria and Gambia whose governments were serious on promoting their local destinations.
While speaking to The Guardian on Monday, despite the country’s performance, TTB’s Managing Director Devota Mdachi was optimistic that the board will still topple its rivals in the awards. Mdachi attributed her board’s dismal showing to the dwindling funds it being allocated by the government.
“You need to know that we competed against the likes of Egypt, Kenya, Namibia and South Africa who are given huge amounts of money to market their destinations,” she said.
According to Mdachi, the tourism board in South Africa is allocated $180million per year, a far cry from what her office is allocated.
“Even with inadequate funds we were still able to make it in the top ten, Tanzanians need to appreciate our efforts but I’m sure if we strengthen them, we will be able to shine in the awards,” said Mdachi.
According to a five-year marketing blue print rolled out in 2013, Tanzania aims at attracting two million visitors in 2017 from the current 1.1 million arrivals annually.
However, TTB has been receiving as little as 35 per cent of its budget. Tourism revenues soared 11 per cent in 2015 on the back of higher tourist numbers, the central bank said in its latest monthly economic review.
Although the official tourist arrival figures for the year have yet to be publicly released, records show that a total of 1.14 million tourists visited the country in 2014, up from 1.095 million the previous yea